ABSTRACT
Late-medieval poet and playwright. Born between 1457 and 1470 in the port city of La Rochelle, La Vigne was in the service of Marie d’Orléans from ca. 1488 until her death in 1493, when he became secretary to the duke of Savoy. In 1494, in an effort to attract a more powerful protector, he presented a work to King Charles VIII, the Ressource de la Crestienté. This poem is a dream allegory in which the king, in the personage of Magesté Royalle, is shown as the protector of Dame Crestienté, who is in peril. Impressed with La Vigne’s talents, Charles appointed him historiographer of his military expedition into Italy to conquer the kingdom of Naples (1494–95). The resulting chronicle, the Voyage de Naples, is an eyewitness record of the events of the Italian campaign. Like the Ressource, it is written in alternating verse and prose.
